U.S. to auction state shale for drilling

[Duer 157099]

Source: SF Gate

A nearly 18,000-acre stretch of land extending from California's Central Coast to the San Joaquin Valley is the setting for a brewing debate over an oil-extraction method that has little governmental oversight.

The land, which spans Monterey, San Benito and Fresno counties, rests on a large chunk of the Monterey Shale, a formation of underground minerals long eyed by the energy industry for its potential to yield billions of barrels of oil.

That potential is expected to come closer to reality in December, when the federal government - which owns below-surface rights to the mostly private land - is scheduled to hold an auction to lease out parcels to oil and gas companies.

The lease sale, the second on the Monterey Shale in about a year, will occur in the midst of a growing battle among environmentalists, politicians and the energy industry over the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking." It injects a high-pressure mix of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to unlock oil and natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth - resources that cannot be tapped with conventional drilling techniques.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/U-S-to-auction-state-shale-for-drilling-3850852.php

---

Fracking in California near the San Andreas fault? Sure, what could go wrong?

[Orrex]

1. In order for this to work, they need to do three things

1. Ensure that there's no before-the-fact research to verify safety

2. Guarantee that drilling companies don't have to reveal the components of their chemical "fracking" soup

3. Preemptively absolve the drilling companies of any liability or accountability if their fracking should lead to any negative economic, health, or geologic consequences


Hell, give them a huge tax break while we're at it, and see if we can inspire them to hire non-union, non-US workers too.

[zbdent]

2. "inspire them to hire non-union, non-US workers too."

wait ... illegals have unions?

[RoccoR5955]

3. Fracking is NEVER safe.

If they cannot guarantee the safety of the water, they should abandon the project.
Fracking can never be safe. As long as they drill below ground water, there is always the probability that ground water will get polluted with natural gas and fracking fluid. This is a fact.
If you don't understand how, just do a bit of research.

[limpyhobbler]

30. +1

The gas bubbles up into streams sometimes. Or makes geisers.

The worst part is that it is only really noticed when it bubbles up to the surface like that in a dramatic way. In most cases it just silently contaminates the water and we never hear about it.

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. This is already fueling boom towns in North Dakota and Texas.

Williston, ND, has gone from 12,000 to 25,000 people in two years. Guys are paying good money to sleep in essentially barracks. I know a guy who dragged a portable shower up there and sells showers for $10. Rumor is dishwashers are getting $20 an hour, if you can find one (but when I looked, I only saw a bar offering a position for $10).

Likewise around Kenedy, Texas. I just read about how they've created 45,000 jobs in the past few years and expect to add another 75,000. The Texas Department of Transportation can't issue commercial drivers' licenses fast enough, so there's a big bottleneck. Truckers are supposedly getting up to $80,000 a year.

I don't think fracking is a smart approach, but I'm seriously thinking about hopping in my pickup and hitting one of these boom towns. I don't want to be an oil patch worker, but I could sell 'em whiskey or something.

[oldsarge54]

5. C'mon Down

We have in the counties involved increases in violent crime, prostitution, and folks building shacks to rent at high cost. it is the classic boom town experience. Doesn't do a whole lot of good in the long term. That is the problem with boom town thinking.

[Comrade Grumpy]

12. That sounds about right.

Reams of rootless young working men generate lots of vice activity. And there was one horrible crime associated with the Williston boom: A couple of itinerant workers were out driving around and smoking crack and kidnapped and killed this Montana woman who was out jogging.

And yes, after the boom, the bust. You see that all around the West, around the extractive industries.

[Ilsa]

16. Don't forget how the boom in heavy industry takes a toll on

Roads and bridges. Texas said it is looking at hundreds of millions of dollars in road repair work to be done in all of the areas where there has been a fracking boom.

[Odin2005]

8. Good luck finding a place to live arounf the Bakken fields.

I have a friend who teaches out there (Parshal, ND), and the land values are through the roof.

[Comrade Grumpy]

11. Dude, I'm seriously thinking of sleeping in my truck.

If I can find a place to park it.

I'd pay $10 for a shower every two or three days if I was making good money.

But I'm I'm going to be living in my truck, I won't show up in North Dakota until the spring. It gets kind of cold in Williston in, oh, November, December, January, February, March.

[Ilsa]

15. If you are close to a small city, join an athletic club.

For $50-100 a month, you could shower every day and make friends in the club. They might even have decent food to eat if they have a cafe.**

There are truck tents, you know, for $100-150, depending on your vehicle. And some companies might give you a special stipend if temporary housing is expensive.

Try south Texas. The winters are generally mild. And I've heard that there are lots of jobs that have bloomed because of the oil industry. There is also a new Caterpillar Mfg plant in South Texas.

**I considered living out of my vehicle, going to work, and spending my free time at an athletic club one year to save money before moving. I had a lot of the details worked out.

[Comrade Grumpy]

19. Good advice, thanks.

I think fracking is stupid and dangerous--and short-sighted--but I'm getting old and have zilch to retire on. I may just have to see if I can't find a way to make and save some money in the patch.

[Ilsa]

26. The fracking will happen whether you are there or not.

Might as well find a way to makeup some of the money you need for retirement.

Also check the Caterpillar plant in Victoria, Texas. Huge new facility. Pay should be decent.

Also, the local college in Victoria is training commercial truck drivers. I don't know what the cost is, though.

[RoccoR5955]

38. What's it gonna be like in 10 years when the well has dried up

and all those jobs are gone?
OK for short term, but horrible for the long term.
Truckers don't get 80k/yr unless they work their buns off.
The kind of truckers they need to haul hazardous materials might get near that though.

[jwirr]

43. Our county had a small boom for the time that the oil companies were putting in a pipeline. We

learned a big lesson that boom means until the work in done. It is probably worth going to that area temporarily but I would not move my family there.

[pscot]

6. They tell me the fault line

runs right through here:

[Odin2005]

7. Fracking near a fault? FUCKING IDIOTIC!!!

[oldsarge54]

23. Terrible Vision

I have this terrible vision of several million gallons of KY making it to the fault line. Where are the liberal most found in California, West, or East of the fault line. Might have a weird effect next election. From someone who remembers the 60s concern of the west coast taking a dive.

[Hydra]

9. Yay! More Fracking

More poisoned groundwater for variable return!

The fact that water is more valuable than methane seems not to have hit enough people in the face yet, including the Obama Administration.

[Hubert Flottz]

10. Frick and Frack = Willard and Lyin Ryan.

They want to drill YOU!

[Paladin]

13. "NIMBY" Is The Operative Principle, Here.

As in: "Not In My Back Yard."

[Duer 157099]

14. No, I believe it is "NOMBAF"

Not On My Big-Ass Fault"

[Hell Hath No Fury]

45. Not "Nimby" at all --

No fracking ANYWHERE.

[datadiva]

17. I live in Stockton, California

And this scares the shit out of me.

[patrice]

18. Where's a fucking Occupy, when you need one? Gone home to push the "Don't vote" meme. nt

[patrice]

20. Make that the Ayn Rand, "There's no choice", so don't vote meme, in my area, which pretty much

explains quietude on this issue.

[Occulus]

24. what a thoughtful, relevant post.

Mad props to you! You should be proud!

[patrice]

28. Based on facts. I don't need to justify myself to you. I know what happened here. nt

[Occulus]

33. Ans I didn't ASK for any justification.

Defensive much?

(hint: occupy has JACK SHIT to do with hydraulic fracturing. But you KNEW that when you posted; you just wanted to make a gratuitous, irrelevant dig at the whole movement)

[limpyhobbler]

27. How does voting affect this?

Did people vote for this?

[patrice]

29. Haven't you heard, "Everything's Obama's fault. Don't vote. Let is crash and burn, so we can

start over."

[limpyhobbler]

31. This isn't what we voted for.

This is a national issue spanning several states and it requires a national response. The federal EPA and BLM should be protecting us from this dangerous industrial activity instead of siding with the oil companies every time.

Oil companies slop millions of dollars around to the piggies in DC and in our state capitols, to make sure their policies go through without a hitch.

Oil and gas companies spend millions to inject their propaganda into cable news shows to mislead the public. So cable news fails to adequately cover stories that could rile the public against new oil and gas projects.

This is all to enhance the profits of oil companies. Global warming has not been a priority. The risk of water contamination has not been a priority. Fuck this shit.

You raise a good question about how much Obama is to blame for this. I think there is plenty of blame to go around but the President should not be held accountable for his environmwntal policies at this time because there is no real way to do so. We have to keep the gop out, so vote for Obama.

But I promise this is the last time in my life I will ever vote for a candidate at any level of government who supports fracking.

[JRLeft]

21. Does the environment ever take priority.

Last edited Mon Sep 10, 2012, 04:23 PM - Edit history (1)

[Paladin]

32. Auctions Such As This Happen All The Time.

They are usually administered by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management), part of the Department of the Interior. The federal government owns huge amounts of land in the West, and these auctions of mineral rights happen frequently in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, etc. Don't lay this on "the Administration," just because it's happening in some place scenic, for a change........

[Paladin]

40. Again, There's A Long-Standing Procedure In Place.......

....for imposing operational restrictions on federal oil and gas leases. Do a little research on the matter, instead of getting snarky with me......

[Paladin]

48. As A Matter Of Fact, I DO Have Special Insight.

Special insight, derived from years of dealing with federal oil and gas leasing procedures. Looks like you're way too smart to benefit from my experience, so I'll just sign off. Best of luck in dealing with your own personal fault lines......

[limpyhobbler]

25. Don't vote for candidates who support this. This is global warming denialism.

Obviously it's too late for this election since we are already commited to candidates. But next election don't vote for this.

I hear people talking about this creating jobs. They tend to exaggerate the jobs numbers.

But more importantly, we could create millions of green jobs building and installing solar and wind power, modernizing the electric grid, accelerating clean energy research, and converting to electric cars.

There is no need to choose between jobs and the environment. Quite the opposite. Jobs and the environment go together perfectly. The idea that we have to choose between the two is a lie intended to keep people from defending their communities against this kind of unwanted industrial development. We were promised green jobs. What happened?

Instead the politicians, who are paid spokesmen for the oil & gas corporations, pulled a bait and switch. And now they are force feedeing us the dirtiest jobs imaginable. The exact opposite of what we voted for.

On top of the adding to global warming, this also will contaminate water and possibly cause earthquakes, and disrupt communities.

Don't step into a voting booth and put your stamp of approval on it. Well obvioulsy it's not like you have a choice. But next election.

Consider Al Gore in 2016.

[bkkyosemite]

34. As a CA native who went through the

Loma Prieta 7.1 quake I can tell you THEY ARE STUPID GREEDY IDIOTS...omg FRICKIN IDIOTS...

[They_Live]

35. This

is an act of war. Does anyone else feel that way?

[RoccoR5955]

39. I sure do. It's class war all over again

Some of the oil companies, and the Koch brothers are now buying up water rights. They know that the water in the fracking area will be undrinkable, so they are gearing up to sell water, while they make big profits on gas.

[jwirr]

42. Now that is a test state. I wonder if California is going to do an EPA study?

[Hell Hath No Fury]

44. Are they fucking KIDDING????

I had not idea this sale was going on here -- I am stupified. Who ever thinks this is a good idea has their head up their ass. Looks like I need to hook up with some local groups for some direct action.

[KamaAina]

46. And California gets nothing in return

We are the only oil-producing jurisdiction on Earth that does not have a severance fee, thanks to obstinate repukes, who prevent it from getting the required two-thirds majority.

[KamaAina]

47. Here's the area in question

The name "Coalinga" may be vaguely familiar to Californians. That's because it had a 6.5-magnitude earthquake in 1983. Not shown on the map, underneath the white box that says "Parcels for sale..." is Parkfield. The stretch of the San Andreas Fault near Parkfield is the most heavily studied and instrumented stretch of fault in the world, because of the frequency of small quakes there.

[slackmaster]

51. Parkfield has had a pretty steady record of M6 quakes, but never a huge one

That's what makes it interesting. It's in the middle of a long and relatively straight segment of the San Andreas fault.



http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/parkfield/

[woo me with science]

50. Here we go again. nt